Iran supreme leader warns opposition to back down

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's supreme leader issued a tough warning Monday to the opposition to back down after a pro-reform former president called for a referendum on the government's legitimacy, a sign of the movement's growing boldness in challenging the country's clerical rulers.

The exchanges between the opposition on one side and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his core of hard-line clerical supporters on the others appeared to be heating up, reflecting how the monthlong conflict over Iran's disputed presidential election is entering a new level — a struggle within the leadership itself.

The opposition has been energized by a show of support last week from former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a key figure within the ruling clerical hierarchy. On Monday, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi made some of his harshest comments yet at hard-liners and, implicitly, Khamenei himself.

Mousavi said they had insulted Iran's people by claiming that the anger over June 12 presidential elections that exploded into massive protests was fueled by foreigners.

"You are facing something new: an awakened nation, a nation that has been born again and is here to defend its achievements," Mousavi said during a meeting with families of those arrested in the postelection crackdown, in which he called for the detainees' release. "Arrests ... won't put an end to this problem. End this game as soon as possible and return to the nation its (arrested) sons."

Supreme Leader Khamenei, who holds final say in all state matters in Iran, has declared valid the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has demanded a stop to questioning the results. Mousavi and his camp claim Ahmadinejad's win was fraudulent and that the new government he is to form next month will be illegitimate.

Khamenei's warning on Monday was clearly aimed at telling the opposition to stay in line — and at Rafsanjani, hinting that the powerful cleric was not above punishment for his stances. The speech made clear the supreme leader was digging in against any talk of a referendum on Ahmadinejad's government.

Khamenei addressed his comments to "the elite," saying they could be careful in the positions they take on the postelection dispute and not do anything that will hurt Iran's security, which he said would be "the biggest vice."

"The elite should be watchful, since they have been faced with a big test. Failing the test will cause their collapse," Khamenei told a group of officials in a speech marking a religious holiday Monday, according to state radio.

"Anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is," Khamenei said, as Ahmadinejad and other officials sat on the floor beside him on stage.